UC Libraries Celebrate Three Millionth Book

“The libraries are the cornerstone of our university community, and its books and its volumes are our lifeblood.” – Kristi Nelson, vice provost for academic planning, Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost for Baccalaureate and Graduate Education

It was an event that celebrated the past and the future of University of Cincinnati Libraries and their vast resources that reveal the rich history of the Queen City. The acquisition of the UC Libraries three-millionth volume –

Paoletta,

the only opera ever to be commissioned by a U.S. city, which was Cincinnati – was the highlight of a Nov. 16 celebration that got the libraries on the pathway to their next goal of four million volumes.

Three million – it’s a number so big, it’s hard to visualize. So, let’s give it a try. If you divided three million books among the 35-thousand seats in Nippert Stadium, each fan in a seat would be holding 85.7 books. Spread among the more than 34,000 students at UC, it would average 87.3 books per student. Or if you stretched three million books along I-75 North, they would span approximately 57 miles, about the distance from Cincinnati to Dayton.

“As we set about making our plans for this event, we decided that we really wanted it to reflect the unique collections that are a daily part of our lives and the University of Cincinnati Libraries,” said University Libraries Dean Victoria Montavon as she opened the ceremony. “And one of the ways we thought we would accomplish that was for each of the five library groups to select a volume.”

Number three million, Paoletta, was the acquisition of University Libraries, which includes Langsam Library and nine college and departmental libraries. “It’s not easy to choose a single volume when your group of libraries spans a full range of disciplines,” Montavon said. “We really wanted it to be something historic, we wanted it to be something rare, and we wanted it to reflect the university’s close ties to Cincinnati.”

The volume of

Paoletta

will be housed in Archives and Rare Books in Blegen Library. It’s a collection that includes the score of the opera, 124 original costume designs and a belt that was worn by one of the cast members when the opera was performed at the 1910 Ohio Valley Exposition in Cincinnati. “It was composed by Pietro Floridia, an Italian-born composer, conductor and teacher who was a faculty member of Cincinnati’s College of Music from 1906-1908,” Montavon said.

“The Paoletta volume promises many new discoveries as a primary source for that 1910 opera. We hope today to gain a greater understanding of how Cincinnati came to be the first American city ever to commission an opera. In the spring, we’re going to have the opportunity to learn even more about Paoletta, because bruce mcclung, associate professor of musicology in the College-Conservatory of Music, has undertaken research on the opera and will present a lecture in early May as part of our regular library lecture series,” Montavon said.

Keynote speaker Robert C. Vitz, professor of history at Northern Kentucky University and author of

The Queen and the Arts: Cultural Life in Nineteenth-Century Cincinnati

, presented the city’s rich history of expositions that blended Cincinnati’s appreciation of the arts with its accomplishments in manufacturing. He said Paoletta, a story of love and sorcery set in 15th century Spain, was rewarded with 48 curtain calls on opening night and sellout crowds at the 28 performances that followed it.

“It was never performed again. We welcome today after 94 years the return of at least a part of the original Paoletta to the city that produced it,” Vitz said.

Roger Guard, chief information officer for the Medical Center and associate dean, information services, launched University of Cincinnati Libraries on the pathway to 4 million volumes, as selections following three million were presented as part of the ceremony. Here are highlights of their descriptions, as well as highlights of remarks from Jane E. Henney, senior vice president and provost for Health Affairs, and Kristi Nelson, vice provost for academic planning, Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost for Baccalaureate and Graduate Education:

Volume 3,000,001, presented by Health Sciences Libraries
Pharmaceutical Education in the Queen City: 150 Years of Service 1850-2000, by Michael A. Flannery and Dennis B. Worthen (published in 2001).

“The volume we selected is the history of our second-oldest Medical Center college, the College of Pharmacy. The authors are friends and colleagues. This  volume is 3,000,001, so it’s the first volume on our way to 4,000,000.”  -- Roger Guard

Volume 3,000,002, presented by Marx Law Library
Introduction to American Law. Designed as a First Book for Students, 8th ed. By Timothy Walker, published in 1882.

“We chose this book because of its prominent place in the history of the College of Law and its importance to the study of law in general. I doubt the name Timothy Walker is familiar to many of you, but it is one that is very familiar to our law students, our faculty and our staff at the college. Walker was the founder of the law school. He was the college’s first dean and first professor. The school opened in 1833 with three faculty and 17 students. At one time (1839-1844), Walker was the only faculty member of the College of Law. During his early years, Walker developed a series of lectures on what was then substantially the entire range of subjects that law schools required of its students. The lectures were published as the first edition of Introduction to American Law in 1837, just a few years after the school opened. Over the next 68 years, this book ran 11 editions, gaining a reputation as the American Blackstone.

“During his address at the dedication of Alfonso Taft Hall in 1925, Chief Justice William Howard Taft noted that Walker’s books came to be known everywhere as ‘one of the most useful, accurate and comprehensive books on law ever published.’” – Virginia C. Thomas, director, Marx Law Library

Volume 3,000,003, presented by Clermont College Library
World Heritage Sites of UNESCO: The Treasures of Art, by Marco Cattaneo and Jasmina Trifono (published 2003).

On behalf of Rosemary M. Young, director, Clermont College Library, University Libraries Dean Victoria Montavon said the college chose the book because it “highlights UNESCO’s identified world heritage sites for art. She notes the book is not owned by any other UC library, nor any OhioLINK library, making it a unique contribution to that statewide collection.”

Volume 3,000,004, presented by Raymond Walters College Library
An Expression of the Community: Cincinnati Public School’s Legacy of Art and Architecture. Photographs by Robert A. Flischel. Essays by Anita Elllis and Walter Langsam (2001).

“This book is a beautiful book that documents the incredible and rich variety of architecture and artwork found in some of Cincinnati’s oldest schools. How this artwork came into these schools was the result of the educational reform movement that started in the early 1900s. The basic principal was that the physical environment was just as important as the curriculum.

“The reason that we selected this particular book is because of the unique circumstances at the Raymond Walters College campus. We share our campus with the Blue Ash Elementary School.” – Stephena E. Harmony, director, Raymond Walters College Library

Remarks from Jane E. Henney, senior vice president and provost for Health Affairs
“I have never been asked to come and celebrate a library and I thought, ‘This is going to be so much fun.’ Because I think the library means so much in all of our lives, whether it’s the university library or libraries that we have known. My personal experience with life-changing events in a library really started at a very young age. I grew up in a community of 512 in northeast Indiana, called Woodburn, Indiana, and the only thing to do in the community there was to go to the library. And my goal, from age five when I first started toddling to downtown Woodburn, Indiana, was to read every book in the library. I just loved it.

“I must say that here at the University of Cincinnati and its medical center, we need the vibrancy of an active library to stay at a first-rate level in terms of our academic and research performance…

“We have continued to rank among the nation’s finest in terms of libraries at academic health centers, in terms of our electronic resources, our journals, our books and our digital media. We have received prestigious grants for the libraries. We are also very pleased that the people who work in our libraries have been chosen for leadership positions. Roger Guard has served as head of the Academic Health Center Libraries Association for the past year. So, we believe that our voice is heard not only in Cincinnati but across this nation in terms of what can really happen when you provide your faculty, staff and students great resources.”

Remarks from Kristi Nelson, vice provost for academic planning, Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost for Baccalaureate and Graduate Education

“The libraries are the cornerstone of our university community, and its books and its volumes are our lifeblood.

“There are many reasons that we should be proud of our celebration today and what our UC Libraries are all about. First, our libraries are essential to the work of the entire UC community.

“Second, we should be very proud of the UC libraries and the rich collections they contain, which span all disciplines, encompass all formats, including books, reports, maps, government documents, videos, increasingly electronic journals, e-books, and image, music and full-text databases. It’s quite comprehensive.

“Thirdly, we should be most pleased that our libraries currently rank 45 among 113 university research libraries in the United States and Canada. In case you’re not familiar with how these rankings are done, they take into account the number of volumes held, the number of volumes added during the previous fiscal year, the number of current serials, total operating expenditures and the size of staff.

“In times of deep budget cuts, we have been able to maintain our strong commitment to the libraries and to be able to grow its collections. Our UC Libraries today span 14 locations across the university, including Langsam Library and the nine college and departmental libraries of University Libraries, the Health Sciences Libraries, the Marx Law Library, the Clermont College Library and the Raymond Walters College Library.

“Let me close by quoting from Walter Cronkite, who reminds us that, ‘Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap to that of an ignorant nation.’”